Tow Job
by Swift Bolt99
Summary: Two months after the battle against the Wraith Superhive, Colonel Carter finally gets her first mission as the Hammond's C.O.
1. Chapter 1

Tow Job

USS George Hammond

Earth's Orbit

April 1st, 2009

Shortly after getting word of an incoming priority one message from Homeworld Command, Colonel Carter ran onto the bridge. She was holding a meeting in the conference room when the word came.

"What's the word, Major Pope?" she asked her weapons officer who was put in command of the bridge until she returned.

"General O'Neill is standing by to give us the mission details, ma'am."

"Bring him up on the HUD," Carter ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am."

Carter turned towards the viewscreen where the HUD materialized showing O'Neill in the HC operations center.

"Greetings, Carter," Jack Cheerfully said.

"Greetings, sir. I understand you have a mission for us."

"At long last I do, but it's a simple one. You're heading out to the void to pick up the Sun Tzu and bring her home."

"I'm surprised we're finally getting around to it."

"Well, it's taken this long for things to finally start looking up again. The aftermath of our fight against that Wraith Superhive left us with three ships combat ineffective ships and our drone chair smashed to pieces. Of course, we put your ship into orbit the week after, but yours was the only one we had at the time. We didn't want to put the task on defending Earth solely on Atlantis's shoulders. Speaking of which, they are still doing repairs on that city."

"Understood, sir."

"But now with our British friends about to launch their first 304, the Victory in a few hours, we feel that the time for this tow job is now. You have your orders Colonel, now get moving."

"Yes, sir." The HUD faded then Carter returned to her chair and told the ship's pilot, Major Stephanie McCord to set course for the void and activate the hyperdrive.

The ship broke orbit and went into hyperspace. Thanks to its more powerful hyperdrive, the Hammond's ETA was five hours instead of thirteen which would've been the case if the Daedalus or Apollo were making the trip.

Plus as a block two 304, the Hammond had a tool that made it more than perfect for this mission.

PLAS Sun Tzu

The Void

"Yes, sir. I'll tell him right away," Colonel Camren Mitchell replied into his earpiece then turned to Colonel Yin who just finished talking to one of his officers. When Earth was contending with the Superhive, SG-1 was away on the Odyssey trying to find a planet that would be suitable for trying to dial the ninth chevron. An operation dubbed the Icarus Project. After the Superhive was destroyed, Homeworld Command rerouted them to Praclush to get the drone chair from the outpost Taonas since the one on Earth was destroyed.

But that mission was scrubbed due to the surface temperature being way too hot. Since then, the Odyssey had been babysitting the Sun Tzu. The Daedalus and Apollo returned to Earth for their long repair periods when the Odyssey arrived back in the middle of February. The rest of SG-1 was still on the odyssey while Mitchell had been given the role of liaison.

"What news do you have for me, Colonel Mitchell?" Yin asked.

"Good news, sir. Your ship is finally going home. The Hammond will be here in five hours to pick you guys up."

"Finally. It feels like we've been out here forever."

"I know the feeling, but you and your crew did a great job keeping it together and saving your ship from breaking apart."

"That was also due to the support we received from the Daedalus and Apollo repair teams. I don't know what I'm going to do when we get back to Earth. Even with the restoration of hull integrity, we're still looking at a year of repair time."

"Cheer up, Colonel. While your ship is in the shop, she will also be upgraded to the Hammond Standard. Which means your ship will be returning to the fleet with a faster hyperdrive still not as fast the one on the Odyssey and other features like a stronger superstructure, better reverse thrusters, larger and wider 302 bays, more powerful railguns and the neat tool Colonel Carter is gonna use to tow you home. I'll still be onboard to oversee the hookup on our end."

"Very well. I still regret not being able to make it home in time for Colonel Sheppard's award ceremony."

"If Atlantis is still on Earth by the time we get back, you might be able to thank him yourself. After you finish debriefing your bosses in Beijing of course."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The Void

Five hours later

Mitchell and Yin stood at the viewscreen and watched as the George Hammond emerged from hyperspace.

"Right on time," Colonel Yin commented referring to the fact that the Hammond arrived right when the clock above them struck zero.

"And so begins Operation Tow Truck," Mitchel said then activated his radio. "Hey Sam, this is Mitchel aboard the Sun Tzu. Do you read?"

"Affirmative, Camren. We just did a scan to double-check the Hull integrity and it's good. We are going to turn to position ourselves in front of you so we can initiate the tow. Is Colonel Yin with you?"

"I am here Colonel Carter and we are ready to get out of here."

"Copy that, Colonel. We should be hooked up in a second."

Hammond's Bridge

"We're in position ma'am," McCord said after completing the turn.

"Nice work, Major. Pope, fire the tractor beams."

"Yes' Ma'am."

Two tractor beams shot out from the bottom of the ship and latched onto the nose of the Sun Tzu.

"Colonel, we have a solid connection."

"Camren, we're reading a solid connection on our end. How does it look over there?"

"We got a good reading here too."

"Copy that. Odyssey, this is Hammond, we're about to jump back into hyperspace."

"Understood. Our 302s just returned from their patrol and we're ready on your mark," Colonel Davidson replied.

"Ok. Five, four, three, two, one, mark."

Both ships jumped into hyperspace at the same time and the relief of everyone, the tractor beams maintained their connection with the Sun Tzu.

Five hours later, they returned to Earth whereupon dropping out of hyperspace, they were greeted by a flyover of the sixteen 302s of Neon Squadron from the Victory along with a welcome back message from its commander, Colonel Emily Higgins. Inwardly, Carter felt pleased that she was no longer the only female ship commander in Earth's fleet.

After the Odyssey broke off to take up orbit over the United States, The Hammond settled over China where it released the Sun Tzu for the flight down to its base in the middle of the Gobi desert. Twelve 302s were sent up from the base to escort her.

The moment the crew disembarked in the underground hangar, the maintenance team which consisted over a hundred workers and a few bots began their work on the ship. The first team would be on duty for twelve hours then another group would take over. The process would be repeated until the Sun Tzu returned to the stars.

On January 1st, 2010 the Sun Tzu rose up from its base and returned to orbit fully repaired and outfitted with the upgrades Mitchell mentioned and a few extra ones like an Asgard terminal in its engineering, a pair of tractor beams like the ones the Hammond used to tow it home, and two additional beam weapons bringing its total of APB turrets from four to six.

In the time it took to repair and upgrade the ship, the United States added two more 304s to its fleet the Phoenix and the Pendergast. England commissioned its second 304, the Charger and Australia commissioned its first, the HMAS Melbourne. Russia was still working on the Chekov and the European Union had begun work on their Austerlitz class battlecruiser. France was leading the charge on that one.

Atlantis was still on Earth for repairs and President Hayes was contemplating disclosure of the Stargate program.

Fin.


End file.
